Words: Colin Barnicle and Nick Barnicle

Photography: Ben Grieme

"We were raised in this Cathedral of hometown worship at 4 Yawkey Way. This place of togetherness, remembrance, occasional misery. This place of brothers. We were raised at Fenway Park but never have we known a night like this. Reeling from tragedy, the city was given the light of eternal summer. This was the second coming on a Wednesday night. The script had been written. Our gift. Our time. We asked and we received."

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Before the 2013 World Series Games, Jonny Gomes wore an Army combat helmet. When asked where it came from, he would only say it was "battle tested." Baseball is not war. It's a game, but one approached with tribal zeal in Boston. So when Master Sgt. Miguel Chacon from Natick handed Gomes his combat helmet from Iraq a month before the Series, the bearded-monk leftfielder made it a symbol.

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Jarrod Saltamachia

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Junichi Tazawa

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On April 20 2013, two days after mayor Menino climbed to the pulpit at the cathedral of the holy Cross and told his people "we are one Boston," David Ortiz stood on his people, and told them, "this is our fucking city." A .688 World Series average will endear you, but that kind of heart makes you a father. Fans don't call him big Papi for what he did on the field, but for what he did off it.

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Dustin Pedroia at bat

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John Lackey

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Allen Craig of the St. Louis Cardinals

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Big Papi at the plate

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Shane Victorino's bases-loaded double to deep left in the bottom of the third scored Jacoby Ellsbury, Ortiz and Gomes. After that, the Sox didn't look back.

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Inside the scoreboard at Fenway there is a man who stands in a two-foot wide tunnel, its walls tattooed with signature. His job is to record balls and strikes. On October 30th, he buzzed strike nine times and ball three times in the top of the last inning. And after Sox closer Koji Uehara delivered one more pitch, the man buzzed the final strike of the season.